A survey has triggered an all-out battle between the pro and anti-Euro factions to win the hearts and minds of business people in York and North Yorkshire.

Questionnaires have been sent to every one of the 3,000 members of the three Yorkshire partner chambers of commerce - in York and North Yorkshire as well as in Leeds and Bradford - in a bid to monitor their views on Britain joining the European currency.

It is part of a national attempt by the British Chamber of Commerce to assess how far its membership has moved on the issue since a previous survey two years ago slightly favoured the pro-Euro argument.

And with a date for return of the questionnaires set at February 29, organisations on both sides of the divide have already begun manoeuvring to address the Chamber members.

For the moment the "anti's" seem to be making the running... the newly-formed Yorkshire branch of the Business For Sterling movement is first to have approached Roland Harris, chief executive of the York and North Yorkshire Chamber for a meeting to address his 600 members.

It follows a dinner organised by Business for Sterling at the National Railway Museum last Friday at which invited business people heard fighting speeches from Austin Mitchell MP and Trevor Kavenagh, political editor of the Sun.

Meanwhile the anti-Euro group is recruiting other powerful voices within its ranks. Stan Hardy, York-based former president of the Yorkshire Institute of Directors is now chairman of Business for Sterling Yorkshire.

He has announced the recruitment to his cause of one of the biggest names within the York and North Yorkshire Chamber - Adam Sinclair, managing director of Mulberry Hall crystal and china shop in York who is also chairman of the Chamber's retail committee and a member of the Council of the Bank of England.

There are powerful local voices reflecting the case for "going Euro", including Peter Blackburn, chairman of Nestl UK who addressed the York and North Yorkshire chamber dinner last year and warned that the rest of the world would find investment in the UK increasingly difficult if the pound remained aloof.

Ironically, pro-Euro Graham Hall, chief executive of Yorkshire Electricity and chairman of the Yorkshire Forward, the regional development authority, is the speaker at the next York and North Yorkshire Chamber annual dinner on February 24 - five days before the survey deadline.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.